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Oull.-lin ol Tbe Un~oln N•tion-1 l..ifc Found•lion . . . Or. H. Cc,..ld ~~c~lu.r1ry. £dl1or Publhhrd c-11ch month b, The Un.wlt~ N•dvn•l l..if.- Jn~uran~'" C.on•p•nr. Fon Way-ne. Indiana
Number 1472 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA October, 1960
ALBAN JASPER CONANT'S "SMILING LINCOLN" William M. McPherson a patron of the arts commh; .. Lincoln looked anything but merry and Conant had de sioned (probably paid expen•es) Alban Jasper Conant termined to paint a smiling Lincoln. The artist had seen to paint Abraham Lincoln's portrait. McPherson, who Lincoln the day before talking to his friends. Then his became the first president of the Missouri Pacific Rail face had no expression of weariness and the Jines had road, lived in Saint Louis, Missouri, and being a strong softened into curves. This first glimpse Conant had of Unionist, he was not unmindful ot the campaign value Lincoln gave him the vision he wished to transfer to of a new Lincoln por canvass. trait from life for his To get an animated home city. Saint Louis expression on Lin· was to stage the Agri· coin's face Conant cultural and Mechan brought up Lincoln's ical Association Fair debates with Stephen in October 1860 and it A. Douglas as a topic was thought most ap of conversation to Pro p r i a t e for the draw Lincoln out and Western Academy of to help him forget Art to sponsor a por6 the pressing corres trait of the Republi pondence that had to can presidential cand be answered. At other idate. sittings the artist Conant, the thirty disc:u$$ed numerous nine year old secre topics and Lincoln in tary of the Academy turn would start talk ot Art, went to Illi ing - relating anec nois. A r r i v i n g in dotes and jokes that Springfield about two produced the desired months before the animation on his !ace. November e I e c t i on Years later ( 1893) armed with letters ot Conant contributed to introduction, (he had a sort of "album'' studied art for n LAber Se1·iptorium "a period of one year in reminiscent but not New York City) Con unique section" ca11ed ant first contacted "my acquaintance Lincoln in his office with Abraham Lin in the State House. coln." Here he related He found L i nco I n the details of his con quite busy and sur versations with Lin· rounded by m a n y eoln and introduced friends. Lincoln read some of the stories the letters of intro· and legends that are duct ion and was about so well known today. to refus.e Conant's re· In 1911 Conant wrote quest for sittings a second account. of when another young the circumstances un· artist in Lincoln's. der which he painted office said: "i!..lr. Lin his first portrait of eoln, you can give him Lincoln which appears my sitting for tomor· in part in Rufus Rock row. My stay in well Wilson's work Springfield is unlim 4'Lincoln in Portrai ited, and J con ar ture." range for sittings Conant provided his later to suit your con Portrait or Lincoln painted by Alban Jasper Conant readers with an inter· venience. I shall be esting description of glad to further this gentleman's work in that way." This Lincoln's physical characteristics: "I was much puz.zled obliging young artist was George Frederick Wright of to decide what view of his face was most desirable for my Connecticut. purpose. His features were irreguh\T and angular-the The hour appointed for the first sitting was ten o'clock line of the nose was straight on one side and slightly the next morning. The studio was Lincoln's office, a room curved on the other; the lower lip on the right side was about sixty feet long by about t'venty feet wide. When fuller than on the left, as if swollen from a blow or the Conant arrived the presidential candidate was sitting at sting of an insect i while the lines of the lower part of his a large table on which was stacked ••a bu~hel of letter~.'' face met in sharp angles on each side of his mouth. Above 2 LINCOL N LORE all, the heavy mass of black hair, which was quite long, stood out from his head in a very obstinate way, except where it fell over his forehead, which I discovered was very beautiful and symmetrical. I would add also that when his features were in perfect repose his expression was sad and thoughtfuL This was intensified by the drooping of the under lid, showing the white of the eye below the iris." Early in the ~;econd week of Conant's visit to Spring field he announced the completion of his portrait. Making preparation5 to leave "Mr. Lincoln came over, and, look ing at the portrait, said: •You nrc not going till this evening? I would like Mrs. Lincoln to :;ee that. If you will let it remain here I wi11 bring her at three otctock.'" :\1rs. Lincoln arrived promptly with her son ••Jittle Tad" and his playmate called "Jim." Jesse K. Du Bois and 0. M.. Hatch also came to view the portrait. \\'hen it was unveiled Mrs. Lincoln said, "That. is exce11ent. that i::; the way he looks when he has his friends about him. I hope he will look like that after the first of November."' "Meanwhile Tad ••charged around the room like a young colt." He looked into everything-his mother capturing him now and then and holding him in check. Discovering an unfinished portrait (by George Frederick \Vright) Tad said to Jim, ''here is another Old Abe!" The guests appeared not to notice Tad's remark but Lincoln laughed heartily saying, '1 Did you hear that Conant? He got that on the street, I suppose." Before Conant left for Saint Louis he called at. the Lincoln home, accompanied by his little daughter whom he had brought to Springfield for company at the hotel. Upon telling them good-bye Lincoln inquired if the girl's mother were living. Conant answered in the affirmative and Lincoln said, "1 am glad to know it! Somehow I had got the idea that she was an orphan, and I was afraid to ask about her mother for fear I might hurt her feel in.gs." It was Conant's wish that the citizens of Saint Louis would honor him with a commission to paint a full length I)ortrait of Lincoln painted by George Frederick \Vrig ht. portrait of Abraham Lincoln. As this d id not materialize Conant sold the usmiling Lincoln" to his good friend Colonel James Eads on February 11, 1868. Today the a commission to p.aint the portraits of thirteen .former portrait hangs in the Phillipse Manor House at Yonkers, governors. Wright made numerous friends in Spring New York, a g ift from the late Alexander Cochran Smith tield1 among them Jacob Bunn who was later chairman of that city. Mr. Smith is said 1<> have paid $3,750. for of tne Board of State House Commissioners. Later on the study. he spent considerable time in Belleville, Illinois, where Conant died on February 3, 1915 at the age of ninety he met the daughter of the exiled I taJian nobleman, four years. One authority has stated that "during the Count ~lurrazelli di Mont<> Peseali. In 1866 he married course of his Jong li!e he painted, eithe.r single-handed ){area Arelia Murrazelli. or with the aid of fellow artists, as many portraits of 'Vhile painting the former governors of Illinois, Lincoln as did Gilbert Stuart of 'Vashington in an earlier Wright secured appointments for sittings for his first time." However, of all the portraits which Conant paint portrait of Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was. so beseiged with ed-and these include Edwin M. Stanton, Henry Ward artists that he sized up the s ituatio1\ and laid down some Beecher, Dr. James MeCa.sh (president of Princeton), rules. He could recognize no favol'ites, and to show his Major Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter fame and a host fairness he told the artists that he would open h is mail o! justices of the Supreme Court-that of the '1Smiling about nine o'clock each morning at his headquarters in Lincoln'' painted in 1860 remained the most celebrated. the State House, and that they would be welcome to line up around the room with their easels and paint simul· taneously , ..,hatever they could for a period of twenty or thirty minutes every day. It was in this room that Lin~ "THE BUTLER PORTRAIT'' coin delivered his famous "Roose Divided" Speech on BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT June 1G, 1858. He was in 1860 fifty-one years of age, clean shaven, with a face unwrinkled as yet by presi· George Frederick Wright of Connecticut was one of dential <:ares. fifteen or twenty artists who went. to Springfield, Illinois At the end of the period, when his office had been in the summer and fall of 1860 to paint Abraham Lin transformed into a studio, and after a great many of the coln's portrait. Unlike many other painters who gathered portraits were finished, Lincoln asked '\'illiam Butler, in Sprmgfieldl W1·ight had a fine academic background who had acted ns one of his campaign managers, to e.x both in the classical and art fields of study. He studied press his opinion and judgment as to which of the por at the N~w York National Acade.my and was in the life traits was the best. likeness of himself. Butler was one class under Daniel Huntington. At the age of twenty·one of Lincoln's particular friends and political advisers and (born in 1828-some autliorities say 1830) he held the wa.s elected State Treasurer of Illinois in the same elec position of custodian of the Hartford Wadsworth Athen tion that elevated Lincoln to the presidency. This was aeum Gallery1 and in that city he painted very acceptably the same William Butler at whose home Lincoln had fo1· five years. He next spent two years abroad-in Ger· boarded for more than five years after his arrival in many under Professor Albert Grnfie1 court. painter of Springfield. Baden, and a summer in Rome. Returning to the United 1 States he painted in several southern and western cities, Acting on Lincoln s request Butler and his wife and but principally in Hartford. their three children, Salome E. Butler, Speed Butler and Henry Wirt Butler, visited the legislative hall to v'iew In the late summer of 1860 Wright went to Spring the portraits with the idea of selecting the one which field, Illinois, where he received from the State of Illinois was the best likeness of 1\fr. Lincoln. After viewing a1J LINCOLN LORE 3 the portrait" that were exhibited. the family was in Lincoln portrait by Hicks to Kennedy It Co., Art Deal· agrH:nu~nt in the selection of the Wright portrait. A day ers, 785 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.. ror $11.100. or two lattr, Butl~r informed Lincoln of the family'• F·rom newspaper <"lippin~s in the Foundation files it opinion. whereupon the future president brought the appean that Kennedy It Co., purcha•ed tho Hicks por. portrait from \Vright and presented it to his friend. trait for Bernon S. Prentice who owned a eol1ection of American and English paintings. The picture b(ocame known as the .. Butler portrait.. and it rtnuainrd in the possession of the family for man)r Parke·Bernet Galleries &Jtain offered the portrait for yea1"11. At the denth or William Butler. the heirloom sale on April 19JI952. According to t.he Ntu' Yo1'k Herald pa.ssed on to his daughter Salome and was by her, a 1hort Trilnme, April 20, 1952 the •jFirat Lincoln Portrait.. was time prior to her death, given to William J. Butler," 8on purchased by the late Osear B. Cinto1, a former Cuban ot Jl('nry \Virt Butler. For many years the portrait wo& nmbassndor to the Uniter States. Mr. Cintas wanted the exhibited in the National State Bnnk in S1>rinscfield, portrait as a companion item to the Bliss copy of the Illinois. Gettysburg Address which be bought for $54,000 after spirited bidding in the same gullery on April 27, 1949. Next Edward \V. Payne became the owner nnd when his estate wn• being seUied (he died Februory 19, 1932) While Mr. Cintas was present nt the •ale or the Gettys the portrait wns ordered to be sold by the sherilf to be burg Address in 1949, he telephoned from Havana a bid applied on judgments against the Payne estate. Probate of $18,000 for the Hicks portrait. This wns the succe$Sful bid as the second hischest bidder offered $17,500. It is of Judge Benjamin De Boi« thereupon r~tored the paint· ing to the ouotody or the Springfield Marine Bank and interest to point out that at this wame sale, during the same session one or Gilbert Stuart•a portraits of George directed that the banking institution seek pO.Ssible pur· Washington sold for $12,000. <"huen. At l.. incoln's fame grew so did the value of tht portrait. Lincoln authorities praised it.s historit"al ac. On Oetober S, 1953, in Havana. Cuba, Oscar B. Cintas euraoy and boldly deelared it was worth $100,000. At made a will by which he bequeathed the Hicks portrait this timt ( 1934) it was rumored that J. P. Morl(an had of Lincoln to the: Chicago Historical Society •'as a sign offered a Jar,:e aum for the portrait. Its fame was further of •dmiration and respect for ita 1-~retary, Paul ~t. tnhancfd by it.a exhibition at the Century of Progre.u in Angle." At the same t.ime he bequeathed his holograph the lllinoi• Host Building. Eventually the portrait round copy or the Gettysbur~e AddreSll to the United States to permanent ownership at the University of Chicago and it. be placed on exhibition in the White llouse." Since the now hon1C3 in the Lincoln Room in Harper Hall. death of Mr. Cintas. his estate has been in litigation, eomplicated by another will mnde in New York on April \\1right 1mintcd two other portraits of Lincoln both of 30, 1957. However1 in 1959 the Surrogate Court or New which nre bcnrdcd. One of these portrai t& from life wna York awarded the Hicks portrnit to the Chicago Histor· conunhssioned by General Horatio G. \Vright (pointed in icnl Society and the Getty•burg Address to the United Wo•hinscton. D. C. in 1864) and was purehaeed by \Vii. States under the terms of the 1053 will. 1inm RnndOIJ)h Hcnrst. It was later sold to the Klccmnn Gallerie~t t\nd i111 now in the possession or the University of Chicago ond hnn~s in the Harper Room. The other portrait is described as an allegor,ical point· A P resicl entinl Wager in~t (see Rutu!ll Rockwell \Vilson: Lincoln In Portraiturr, Grenl Pedestrian Fcnl page 249.. 250). For many years it was owned by Mn. James Campbell of Mystic, Connec:tieut. whose father .. During the last presidential campaign Mr. Edward P. purcha"ed the original from 'Wright. a.Irs. Campbell sold \\'eston made a wager to the elfect that if Abraham the portrait in 1904 to John Stanton Palmer. For a time Lincoln was elected by tho people pruidont or the United it hun!( in tho Public Library at Westerly. Rhode Island. States, he would agTee to walk from Boston to Washing· Later the portrait was acquired by the late Pe~y Rockte ton inside of ten consecutive dayt, and be present at the roller and io now the property or the estate. A reproduc· inau,:.ruration. He will leave the State House, Boston, at lion of this paintin.:- appeared in Harprr'3 tVrrklv. Vol. noon today, and will be accompanied by two friends. who 53, February 13, 1909. ride in a carriage a short dist.nnce ~hind him to succor him in case of necessity, and al&o to •ee that he carries In ndditlon to the painting of the Lincoln portruits out his agreement to the letwr. lie expects to arrive at nnd the thirteen governors of Illinois, Wright did the Wnshington at 4 p.m. Mnn:h 3<1-the whole Ume occupied portrnlt" of twtnty governors of Connecticut. Hr ol&o in wnlking !rom Boston to Wo~thinsrton to be two hundred painted n pot·trnit of Gideon WellcsJ Secretary of the and eight hours." Nnvy undca· Lincoln, nnd Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gnlluudct, rounder or the American School for the Dent. The ( 811IUmore) Su" •'ebruury 22, 1861 Wris:ht died in 1881 nnd his wife, an artist of unu"MuAl talent, lived untiJ L!H9. She was a teacher of painting ond lanscunges in Hartford. In her long life or eill'htY· An two years 11he became ac-quainted with many of the lead .. English Opinion Of ing c-harattera or the Civil War pe:riod. Sbe could r~· l\lr. Lincoln's Scconcl l rutu~rn l member having heard John Brown diS<"UU his anti .. slavery plan~ with her slavery·hating father. By chance "'The London Spectator remarka of president Lincoln's she was a temporary resident of Minn~ta in 1862 and Inaugural Address that 'for political weight: moral wa~ te"''iding at Stillwater at the time of tht !;ioux dignity and uneft'ected solemnity it hu had no equal in Ma ..orre led by Chief Little Crow. our time! After quoting from the language of the ade dress, it adds: 'No statesman ever uttered words stamped at once with the seal of so d~p a wisdom and so true a simplicity. The village attorney or whom Sir. G. C. I.A!wis Some Aclclit ionnl Fncts Pertnining T o The and many other wise men wrote with so much scorn in Thomus Hicks Portrnit of 1861, seems destined to be one of those foolish things of the old world which are destined to confound the wise, " The Youthful Lincoln" one of those weak things which shall confound the things which are mighty.'" (8H U11t'Oin Lore. No, 1421. S.Netnbel'", 1910) Fort Wayne, (Ind.) Daily On November 24, 1940 the Parke·Bernet Galleries, G(f~rtte Inc., SO Enst 67th Street, New York, N. Y., sold the April 15, 1865 4 LINCOLN LORE
CIDIULATIVE BrBLIOCRAPHY-1959
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